


Soda Pop

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Series: Please Look Here [3]
Category: Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: First Date, First Kiss, M/M, eungi with a g, mini-golf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 02:57:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11072634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Eungi and Jungjung have their first date alone.





	Soda Pop

Eungi loved Insoo most of the time. They got on well and he was a friend that Eungi could rely on. Kenta too. Everything had clicked into place and spending time together was the easiest thing in the world. But it had been a mistake to meet with the pair of them to soothe his nerves.

They had made such a fuss about how Eungi and Jungjung hadn’t kissed yet, that Jungjung was no different to them if all they did was talk and hold hands and do not much of anything.

“Are we your boyfriends too?” Insoo had asked as he leaned right into Eungi’s face with puckered lips. Kenta had gone a step further and Eungi was still annoyed at how defenceless he had been when Kenta dipped in for the briefest of seconds to peck him on the lips. Insoo and Kenta had a squabble over which of them was Eungi’s best boyfriend after that, which was when Eungi decided it was time to go home.

Eungi had to rely on his brother’s guidance when he picked out his outfit for the evening even though he really wanted Insoo’s occasionally good judgement to help him. Eungi loved his brother but he wasn’t very good at picking out his own clothes considering he was a model – he just happened to look good in everything.

Eungi had left the house in clothes that his brother had very enthusiastically agreed to without even looking. Hopefully his own eyes weren’t failing him and he wouldn’t look stupid. He couldn’t go too far wrong with smart-casual. Probably.

Even though the subway was moving, Eungi felt like too static. He needed to move around a bit more and swaying with the momentum of the subway car was not doing enough to calm his nerves. He shifted his weight from foot to foot but that was still not enough. He couldn’t move around too much because he was sure he had been attracting some looks already. He didn’t need to feel the itches of whispers when he was already desperate for a distraction.

He wasn’t sure whether looking at his phone was a good or bad distraction. There was a cute enough message that only made the need to burn off his already frazzled nerves grow.

‘ _Eungi! I hope you are well! I am very excited to see you today! I think I am strange today because I really, really want to hug you! I hope to see your lovely smile today!’_

It wasn’t fair to say things like that.

Eungi’s cheeks were hurting. He pressed his lips together in a tight line but it only lasted for a moment before his face had split into a silly grin. He was excited too! He was happy! But he had no idea what he was supposed to say to that. It was unlikely that he could say anything cute or sweet that would make Jungjung’s chest tighten in the same way that Eungi’s was now.

‘ _Hyung, I hope that you too are well! I’m very excited too, but I am getting more and more nervous the closer it gets to our meeting time! >.< How could wanting a hug be strange when I have been daydreaming about that for as long as I’ve known you! D: You had better show me an even more lovely smile when I see you, Hyung!! <3’_

Eungi was embarrassing himself but at least he wasn’t in sight of Jungjung while saying such indulgently sweet things. The impulse to keep moving calmed down some, but that was in part due to the special sort of dread that accompanied revealing thoughts he usually ignored.

The subway trundled closer to Eungi’s stop and when it was time to alight, his feet itched with pins and needles. His steps weren’t sluggish and slow – despite the dizziness he felt from the very tips of his toes, Eungi found his pace getting quicker and his footsteps lighter.

Eungi’s feet fused to the concrete floor when he spotted Jungjung. It wasn’t right that a person could say such wonderful things and look like something right out of Eungi’s dreams. He swallowed down the anticipation that was pooling at the back of his tongue and hoped it was enough that he had arrived, even though he was a few minutes late.

Jungjung spotted Eungi before he could have properly prepared himself. Jungjung’s mouth dropped open as though Eungi was all that much to look at, and then his whole face broke out into a smile that made Eungi stumble for a second before he stopped completely. Jungjung closed the gap in long strides.

“I am glad to see you,” Jungjung said. He made an odd gesture with his hands and he looked more unsure than glad.

Eungi was unsure too. But he hadn’t been lying when he said he had been daydreaming about hugging Jungjung. There were all sorts of other daydreams too which were as small as holding hands or as mundane as grocery shopping together or as mortifying as waking up and seeing Jungjung’s head nestled into the pillow next to his own.

He held his arms open and Jungjung stepped into his embrace. “I’m glad to see you too, Hyung.”

They had hugged before, dozens of times in the past, but this was different. Eungi hadn’t thought it would feel different yet he could feel bubbles of joy popping in his chest that were somehow different to the ordinary sparks of happiness that hugs triggered.

“Was your journey good?” Jungjung asked quietly, his voice right in Eungi’s ear. The warm tickle of his voice was just something else to realise he craved too much.

“It was fine,” Eungi hummed into the collar of Jungjung’s jacket. “Did you have any trouble?”

“Not at all!” Jungjung pulled away enough to show Eungi how widely he was smiling. Eungi wondered if it was strange how peaceful he felt when he looked at Jungjung’s face. That felt like too much to mention.

Their pace was slow and even as they made their way out of the subway station. People around them hurried past but there were just as many people loitering around and waiting and maybe they too were on dates, or meeting friends, or whiling away a few hours.

There weren’t too many other people going the same way as Eungi and Jungjung. They strolled slowly through the streets and Jungjung was certainly attracting the eyes of people around them. Eungi could hardly blame them. The only reason he looked away from Jungjung was to make sure that he didn’t trip or walk into somebody. But each time he looked at Jungjung he found his looks were being returned.

After around eight times of catching each other’s gaze, a coy laugh effervesced from between Jungjung’s lips. “You look so nice, Eungi,” He said.

“You too, Hyung,” Eungi said. His face felt too warm and he couldn’t keep his lips together. He was too happy. All of the happiness in his body was surely leaking out in successive bursts of chagrin. It pleased him greatly to hear these things but it was even better to see Jungjung’s astonishment at hearing the same said about him.

“No.”

“Hyung, it’s true. You look amazing all the time. Today it seems that you are trying to make my heart explode into tiny pieces right inside my chest. What will I do today? I think I might not be able to last much longer when I see you looking like that.”

Jungjung clapped his hands over his ears and shook his head rapidly.

Jungjung’s face only glowed more brightly when Eungi tugged him out of the path of some merry children skipping around the ankles of their harried mother. He dropped his hands to his sides and pouted. “Hong Eungi is an unfair person.”

Eungi wondered how exactly it was that he was unfair. He didn’t mind it too much. He grinned up at Jungjung whose mouth pulled into a reluctant smile in response.

When they arrived at the mini-golf course, Jungjung’s smile had flattened to fonder facets. He was glittering eyes and flashes of straight white teeth as he paid the girl at the counter. She was bright as she admitted them with score cards and gaudy putters to use around the course.

Jungjung was good at a lot of things. His abilities bordered on superhuman a lot of the time and Eungi often had trouble believing he was a real person and not a caricature of a perfect man. But he wasn’t very good at mini-golf.

At each hole they attempted he alternated between clapping and cheering for Eungi and sulking at his own ineptitude. By the time they reached the fifth hole – a merry windmill with striped sails which rotated lazily in the evening breeze – Jungjung’s moods converged into a more tepid celebration.

“How are you so good?” Jungjung asked as he squinted at Eungi’s scorecard.

Eungi wasn’t that good but he was only a handful of points above par – they both agreed to stop counting Jungjung’s score – so he was impressed with his own performance too.

“Have you done this before, Eungi?” Jungjung accused when his own shot rolled sluggishly into the shallow stream that ran alongside the putting green.

“I haven’t done this before, Hyung,” Eungi said. It wasn’t a lie. Not really. His family had gone mini-golfing before a few times but that was years and years ago. Back then Eungi was a kid who lacked even the basic coordination to hit the ball more than a few metres. The trips amounted to nothing more than squabbling with his brother and sulking. He doubted that counted. Doing so well today must have been beginner’s luck.

Eungi’s abilities took a sudden decline on the last few holes but it didn’t matter. He insisted on paying for the slushies they drank afterwards. Jungjung didn’t like that very much, whining quietly behind Eungi about how he was supposed to pay as he clutched his slush. He glowered at Eungi as he sucked hard on the straw, but when the fizzing blue raspberry met his tongue, his eyebrows shot up.

Eungi chewed at a mouthful of orange and lemon slush as he ignored the reproachful looks Jungjung was sending his way.

“It’s tasty, isn’t it, Hyung?” Eungi said. Jungjung nodded slowly.

“Thank you,” He said.

“Ah, Hyung, why are you so cute?”

Jungjung looked entirely scandalised by that. His mouth dropped open and his tongue was blue. “Eungi, you are too unfair! How can you say things like that? You are much cuter than I am.”

He looked as though he had settled everything with that declaration. But that was the cutest thing of all. Eungi only smiled in response. There was no point in trying to argue the toss over this. It was doubtful that any consensus would be met. He was glad enough that Jungjung would say things about him being cute for no reason at all.

The evening had been worth the wait and the build-up of pressure in Eungi’s chest as he even thought about it was more than enough to keep him going for days and days. And when the date was over and they threw away their slush cups, and Jungjung loosely linked his fingers with Eungi’s, he thought this was something more that would keep him going for days to come.

 

It was cosy as they were crouching side by side in the small alcove outside the mini-golf course as they waited for the taxi. It wasn’t a cold evening but it was better that Jungjung’s warmth was so tight against Eungi’s side. Their conversation came to a lull and it was peaceful.

The sky had darkened to a steely blue and the cars driving past followed the premature glow of their headlights and somehow the evening looked even more romantic after their round of miniature golf. Eungi was about to say as much when Jungjung started to speak.

“What did you say?” Jungjung asked.

“Oh. It is just that the scenery looks nice,” Eungi said. It seemed like a stupid thing to say now that he had vocalised it. It wasn’t really anything important or interesting. It was like he was talking just for the sake of talking. He cleared his throat lightly. “What were you saying, Hyung?”

Jungjung looked away and hesitated for a moment. “I was thinking that I want to kiss you.”

The shy smile on Jungjung’s face was doing strange things to Eungi’s stomach. He was this amazing person who made Eungi’s heart skip a beat and it was strange enough that he liked Eungi at all. And now he was saying things that made Eungi’s face burn.

“Do you not like it, Eungi?” Jungjung asked.

“No, no! That’s not it!” Eungi said quickly, waving away the thought from between them. He absolutely didn’t dislike it. He liked it a lot. He loved it, in fact. “Me too, Hyung. I want to kiss, too. But the environment is a bit…”

They were too exposed out here. It would be strange to kiss where people could see them. It would be strange to kiss in the taxi. It would be strange to invite Jungjung home and kiss him there. They would have to keep wanting for a bit longer until the setting and timing was more appropriate.

“The environment?” Jungjung repeated.

“Yes. There are lots of people.”

Jungjung thought it over for a moment. “Eungi, can you give me your bag?”

It was an unusual request but Eungi was satisfied with the fact that he would do a lot of things for Jungjung without reason. He slipped the tote bag off his shoulder and passed it over. Jungjung smiled his thanks, leaned in even closer, held the bag in front of their faces.

It was cheesy. It was like something out of a drama. Eungi’s insides were melting

“Is it alright like this?” Jungjung asked.

Somebody could probably still guess what they were doing even if their faces were obscured, but this was more than fine. Eungi nodded and relief puffed out of Jungjung’s chest in a taciturn chuckle. He reached for Eungi’s hands in his lap and squeezed tightly at Eungi’s fingers. It was a sure enough sign but he didn’t do anything further.

Eungi licked at the dryness of his lips and Jungjung followed the tiny movement with dark eyes. He squeezed Jungjung’s fingers in return before leaning in all the way. He pressed his lips against Jungjung’s softly. It was too good to be true. He kissed at Jungjung’s lower lip, and then his upper lip and pulled away to create bare millimetres between them that Jungjung followed to press their mouths together once more.

Eungi pulled away. They were still close but it wasn’t quite enough now.

“That was nice,” Jungjung whispered.

“That was very, very nice,” Eungi agreed. Jungjung lowered his arm and the bag was no longer cloistering them away from the rest of the world. But it was alright.

They could keep wanting, and waiting for convenient circumstances again and again and there would be more kisses in the days to come. The day had been pleasant and even though the date was over Eungi’s stomach was bursting with tiny bubbles of happiness.

Jungjung adjusted the grip of their hands and tipped his head onto Eungi’s shoulder.

“Good, good, good,” Jungjung mumbled.

It was good. Everything was good. While they waited for the taxi, everything was good.


End file.
